The Strategic Petroleum Readiness and Long-Term Modernization Act mandates a long-term strategic plan to ensure the SPR keeps pace with the aging reserve’s needs, addressing maintenance backlog and operational limitations
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced the Strategic Petroleum Readiness and Long-Term Modernization Act, legislation to ensure that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) will continue to safeguard the U.S. from severe petroleum supply disruptions in the future.
The legislation comes as the Trump administration has drained the SPR to 283 million barrels, a historic low that is threatening the SPR’s infrastructure, endangering national energy security, and threatening working families and small businesses with skyrocketing prices for fuel and food.
The Strategic Petroleum Readiness and Long-Term Modernization Act will provide Congress with more frequent reports on the state of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve’s critical infrastructure and codifies in law a timeline for DOE to complete a long-term plan to maintain the SPR.
“President Trump’s war with Iran is depleting the SPR to historic lows, endangering critical energy infrastructure, and threatening our ability to help keep costs low for working families,” said Heinrich. “As our energy demand increases, we need to ensure the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is properly maintained, fully operational, and can be counted on when supply is constrained. The Strategic Petroleum Readiness and Long-Term Modernization Act will do just that by mandating that we create a long-term plan to maintain the SPR and ensure we have the tools we need to prevent the SPR from collapsing in times of crises.”
The Strategic Petroleum Readiness and Long-Term Modernization Act ensures that the SPR is ready by:
- Requiring the Energy Secretary to immediately perform a long-range strategic review of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), and deliver a proposed implementation schedule to Congress within 180 days of enactment of the legislation;
- Requiring that DOE complete periodic updates to its long-term plan for the SPR going forward;
- Repealing certain drawdown and sale requirements for the SPR currently in place in order to limit further SPR size decreases or avoid operational efficiencies such as undue strain on aging SPR infrastructure during ongoing capital projects;
- Making technical and Conforming Amendments to relevant sections of EPCA to promote consistency in legislative drafting.
The full text of the bill is here.
As Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Heinrich has introduced policies aimed at lowering energy costs for families and repeatedly pressed the Trump administration to reverse policies that raise energy costs for working families:
Last month, Heinrich released a report detailing how draining the United States’ oil reserves to historic lows as a result of President Trump’s ongoing war in Iran — a war that financially benefits him — will cause prices at the pump to continue to rise.
In August, Heinrich introduced the American Energy Independence & Tax Fairness Act, legislation to repeal outdated tax breaks that allow major oil and gas companies to reduce their U.S. tax obligations for overseas oil and gas production. The legislation would ensure the tax code no longer rewards companies for investing abroad instead of here at home, while strengthening American energy security and requiring some of the world’s most profitable corporations to pay their fair share.
In June, Heinrich hosted a roundtable and discussed how the Trump administration’s policies, including the war with Iran, have driven up energy costs for families, consumers, communities, and small businesses.
In May, Heinrich hosted a roundtable with local small business owners, Roadrunner Food Bank, and Women’s Economic Self-Sufficiency Team, Corp. (WESST) to discuss how President Trump’s global tariffs and war with Iran are making gas, groceries, and everyday essentials more expensive for New Mexico families and businesses.
Heinrich also wrote to the CEOs of the six biggest U.S. airlines seeking information on the current economic conditions of the airline industry as President Trump’s war in Iran continues, requesting that the airlines detail their plan to address rising jet fuel costs, and whether companies will cap or reduce executive compensation to help offset rising costs.
For more information on Heinrich’s actions to hold President Trump accountable for his illegal, costly, and reckless war on Iran, click here.
For more information on Heinrich’s work to lower energy costs for New Mexico families, click here.
For more information on Heinrich’s work to combat President Trump’s tariffs and lower the cost of groceries and everyday essentials, click here.
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